California Fire Coverage

This picture was taken just a few miles from my house, over Diamond Bar, CA. For now, my house is safe, although my son's school has just opened an evacuation center for people whose homes are south of here. The air is thick with smoke and we are trying to figure out what is going on. Unfortunately, the coverage on LA TV stations is totally useless.
At 8 pm on Sunday evening only ONE station is on the air. The rest are showing the usual November network sweeps programming. The folks on KCAL seem obsessed with the Sylmar fire in north LA County and there is little information about what is going on here, except for the occasional "up close and personal" story about someone refusing to leave their house in Diamond Bar. The local TV cannot be relied upon for even the most basic information, such as school closings. Sharon Tay on KCAL chirped, "Just go to our website for the latest." Well, Sharon, I went there only to find that LAUSD and Pomona are open, but nothing about the schools in the threatened areas. Gee, thanks.
I have always believed that local disaster brings out the best in local TV news. But as a viewer, hungry for information about anything about this fire that could affect my community, I have never seen worse coverage. The strategy seems to be to zoom in on a picture of a flame, any flame, and allow the reporters to ramble on while we look at the scary pictures. No attribution, no interviews with fire officials. Hundreds of homes will be destroyed in this fire and any remaining confidence anyone had in TV news will die along with them.

Travels with Anne

Hosting a German journalist in Los Angeles is always fun, but this visit turned out to be more eventful than usual.

Anne Allmeling is a radio and TV reporter based in Cologne. She spent three days with KPCC-FM reporter Susan Valot in Orange County before meeting up with me in Pasadena. You have to give her an A+ for courage because, even though she doesn't even own a car in Germany, she navigated the LA freeways by herself in a rental car.

After visiting my office to talk about tv and radio talent coaching, we planned to drop off her car at her hotel and then I would drive us to the studios of KNX-AM all-news radio. I thought it would be interesting for Ann to hear Frank Mottek's coverage of the dramatic downturn in the economy. Too bad we never got there.

Just two blocks away from the hotel, Ann's foot slipped off the brake at an intersection, and her rented car lurched forward, tapping the bumper of the car ahead of her. Two things became clear immediately: the driver of the car was a Mexican immigrant with no drivers' license and her 14-year-old daughter was holding her neck and asking to go to the hospital. The mother spoke no English and called her two teenaged sons to the scene. Anne had paid for insurance, but had to file a police report to make a claim.

The boys did not want us to call the police and demanded cash on the spot to fix the car, which looked to me as if it had been dented by something else before the accident. As you can see in the pictures, there was virtually no damage to the rental car. And it was hard to understand how such a minor fender tap could have caused a serious injury. But that's for the doctors to decide.

We called the cops. Paramedics also arrived to examine the girl. Pasadena police explained to the mother that they would have to cite her for driving without a license and confiscate her car. But if there were no injuries or damage involved, the officers would not have to write a report and she was free to go. Given the choice, the mother opted to face the citation and go to the hospital with her daughter. The boys looked on sadly as the cops towed the car. The police said it would cost the family nearly $1,000 to get the car out of impound. I shared Anne's disbelief that a police officer would allow an unlicensed driver to continue driving under any circumstances. Apparently, the huge number of undocumented drivers has led to an epidemic of "hit and run" accidents because the unlicensed people don't stick around to exchange information. The police don't want to punish those who do the right thing and stop.

This was a classic LA melting pot experience that could almost be a sequel to the movie "Crash": A visitor from Germany involved in an accident with immigrants from Mexico, with multiethnic police officers, paramedics and bytanders on the scene. Anne got a personal lesson in the issues raised by illegal immigration, such as undocumented people driving without a license or insurance. Three hours later,, we headed into Hollywood for some sightseeing. We finally met up with Frank at the Beverly Hilton, at a celebrity-studded benefit for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization. Frank is a classy guy who always makes time in his schedule to welcome Germans participating in the RIAS/RTNDF journalist exchange program. Both Frank and I have visited Germany as RIAS fellows. As I have said before on this blog, the free trip to Germany is one of the best kept secrets in broadcasting!

I wish Anne the best of luck in her travels and in her career. I hope our paths will cross again under circumstances where we don't have to drive!

Maldives Election

Just want to congratulate my Maldivian friends on their first multiparty presidential election. I only wish I could watch the coverage on TVM from here.

Talent Coaching at Cal State Northridge

The broadcasting program at Cal State Northridge has turned out some fine journalists over the years and I've been proud to call some of them my colleagues. The next batch has some promising newcomers in the RTNDA student chapter, headed by Mazen Hafez (center in the Cal State T-shirt). They invited me to put on a talent performance workshop, and after discussing and reviewing some of their stories we continued the q and a session over dinner. Although there's a lot of passion for sports reporting here, everyone seems to understand the need to be flexible in the tight job market. If you'd like to schedule a talent performance workshop at your school, go to www.terryanzur.com.

Seeing Sarah Palin

I often feel like the last independent voter in America and I don't have to venture outside my immediate family to feel pressure from both sides. My mother and son are staunch Republicans backing McCain-Palin, while my oldest brother lives in Nancy Pelosi's liberal San Francisco district and backs Obama-Biden.

Last weekend I had an opportunity to see one of the candidates up close. My mom and my son received tickets to a Sarah Palin rally and these were VIP passes to be in the front section of the tennis stadium where she was speaking. It was more like a political mosh pit, with people and cell phone cameras jostling for the best view. The kids allowed my 75-year-old mom to move to the front where she got Palin's autograph!

Observations:

-As a talent performance coach, I have to give Palin an A+ for her speech. When someone tried to heckle her, she responded with a smooth and witty adlib: "My son is in Irag fighting for the freedom that guy is exercising right now!" It was hard to believe she was the same person who stammered in response to interview questions from Katie Couric.

-She is knock dead gorgeous in person. TV doesn't do her justice.

-I can see why the rightwingers are so pissed off at the media. Of the entire speech, the only line that made the news was Palin's attack on Obama's past association with a Chicago radical. The coverage didn't remotely resemble the event that I experienced, the enthusiastic overflow Republican crowd in a state that is viewed by the media as already in the Obama victory column. What happened to the idea that the media is supposed to be your front row seat for what actually happens? On CNN, they simply referred to Palin's comments accusing Obama of associating with "terrorists" and said that Obama was demanding an apology while talking about "real issues" like health care. Well, Palin talked about plenty of issues, but I guess CNN didn't think any of it was newsworthy.

Don't get me wrong, I still haven't made up my mind because I think either ticket would be better than the current administration, and both tickets bring unique qualities to the table. However, I am disappointed in the obvious lack of impartiality in the coverage and continuing damage done to the image of professional journalism in the US.

-I can definitely see why Palin is compared to Ronald Reagan in a dress. She has that quality that is hard to define, but you know it when you see it. The people who are trying to pass her off as a Klondike Barbie doll are seriously underestimating her communication skills in front of a crowd. Although I will agree that she needs to bring more of that charisma and confidence to one-on-one interviews.

Election Day in Maldives

October 8 will go down in history as the first multi-party election day in Maldives. My friends at TVM are providing wall to wall coverage, and CEO Ali Khalid says they have won praise for providing coverage that is more fair and balanced than that of the competing private stations. Well done!
One reporter last night told me optimistically that they would know the results shortly after the polls closed. But it's not going to be that easy. There are numerous allegations of fraud and irregularities with the voting lists, particularly on the atolls where island chiefs have discarded the official list and substituted their own. Others have complained that the ink marks used to identify those who have voted can be easily washed off.
At this moment, it looks like a close race between incumbent President Gayoom and opposition leader Anni, with independent candidate Hassan Saeed in 3rd place. However, no one has a majority in the early returns. It's anybody's guess at this point how it will all turn out. It is frustrating not to be able to watch the election coverage, but my thoughts and prayers are with the journalists that they will stick to their responsibility to tell the truth, no matter what happens.

Thanking our Troops

Whenever I get the chance to do some freelance writing, I am reminded of how much fun it is to try and learn everything you can about a topic of current interest and then share it with others. In this case, I am writing an article on how the economic downturn is affecting America's troops and their families. Bottom line: the needs have never been greater, but at the same time donations are dwindling as the financial crisis pushes Afghanistan and Iraq off the front page and people have less money to donate. Did you know that our troops have to buy their own underwear? The least we can do for those risking their lives in combat is to make sure they have clean boxers and socks! (And a few cookies wouldn't hurt.) I'll let you know where you can find the full article when it is finished. And then please DONATE! The photo is courtesy of http://www.adoptaplatoon.org/.

Tale of Two Elections

While the US presidential campaign winds down to its final month, Maldives is counting down the days to its first multiparty presidential election. Here's a look at the candidates. The new constitution requires the new president to be chosen by Oct. 10, so in the Maldivian tradition of meeting deadlines at the last possible moment, the voting will take place on Oct. 8 with results to be announced the following day. Compared to the American election cycle, which begins as soon as the previous election is over, the Maldivians are actually moving at breakneck speed, even managing to have two televised debates so far, one for the presidential candidates and another for their running mates. I was sorry I couldn 't be there as TVM and Think Nation carried out the template that was developed during our training, but they did an excellent job. If you'd like to check out the results, go to the video on demand section of http://www.tvm.gov.mv/. It's all in Dhivehi, so Americans won't understand the content, but you can check out the production values. For translations, go to http://www.minivannews.com/.

The Influence of Facebook

Anytime the TV Maldives news staff is on the computer, it's a good bet that they are on the social networking site Facebook. I wanted to blog about the tremendous influence of this site, created for US college students, among Maldivian teens and twenty somethings. However, getting a picture of someone on Facebook was nearly impossible because they would quickly hide the screen anytime I approached to see what they were doing.

The influence isn't all good. Some people have jeopardized their jobs by posting pictures that would be tame by US standards but are considered too revealing in an Islamic society. It's also a huge time waster, to the point where the news director tried to ban Facebook from newsroom computers and touched off a staff rebellion. Most of these young journalists don't have computer access at home and spend many of their "off" hours in the newsroom using the computer for social networking.

For me, Facebook turns out to be a great way to keep in touch with my former students, both in the US and abroad. However, I try not to get involved in the "fun" applications, unless there is a direct connection to journalism education. No, I don't want to see your wasted party pictures. And NO I don't want to join the group "Hot Maldivian girls."

More Goodbyes

Meanwhile, the newsroom prepared a breakfast for interns Andrew and Laura, and me, complete with my favorite masoni, a mixture of tuna, coconut, onion and chiles. Then we had to race to a final meeting at the information ministry, and another round of goodbye gifts for all. We almost ran out of time to pack our bags and take the VIP dhoni one last time to the airport. Of course, this is NOT goodbye. I still have a handshake deal with TVM to return for more training during the next two years. I look forward to taking the station's news and programming to the next level of excellence as a public broadcaster on TV, radio and online.

The Long Goodbye

After six weeks of training, the final two days in Maldives were crazy! The long goodbye began with a surprise birthday party for our producing consultant Gary Ponticiello.

The home-made short eats were delicious, and no one minded the creative spelling (Happy Birthday Gerry!) on the cake.

Everyone on the programming side was there in party hats, including CEO Ali Khalid.

Next came a "brainstorming" lunch for the programming producers and another round of goodbye gifts for all.

Election Notes

Here's a screen grab of the new election graphics, designed by Musthafa. It finally began running the day before I left Maldives! To differentiate TVM's "fair and free" coverage of the country's first democratic election, my consulting team recommended changing the election brand from the former "Maldives Decides" to "The People Decide 2008." We stuck with the colors from the Maldivian flag to avoid any appearance of favoring any partisan colors like DRP's dark blue or MDP's bright yellow. The turquoise letters in the graphic simply reflect the color of the ocean in this island nation.
This graphic, with music, runs at the beginning and end of the political segment of the news. While this makes the political coverage stand out, it also puts the fairness of the coverage under a microscope. At the same time, the 20 atoll bureaus are now fully staffed with mostly green but eager new recruits who don't always realize that every story they cover will be judged in a politically charged atmosphere.
For an example, check out this letter on Minivan News. Here's the link: http://www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=4879
An update on the construction of an island's new mosque is pretty standard content for a package from an atoll reporter. However, every story will now be judged as promoting the government if the project is going well, or promoting the opposition if the project has problems. It is more important that ever for atoll reporters to tell ALL sides and to have their scripts approved by a manager to make sure they are fair and balanced.
Update:
As I write this from California, there's word that Gasim Ibrahim of the Villa business empire has become the presidential candidate of the Maldives Republican party. The clock is still ticking toward the Oct. 10 deadline to have an elected president in place to take office on November 11. At least two parties have called for a delay, but the Majlis rejected that option and passed an election bill that firms up the Oct. 10 date. But there is still NO date set for voters to go to the polls. Once again, it all comes down to the cultural tendency here to do everything at the last minute.

Conversation Maldives

The Conversation Maldives program is a weekly discussion show in English. Gary and I were invited to talk about the media training project and our impressions of Maldives. The host, Jamila, was well prepared and expertly guided the conversation. She is a former part-time news reader for TVM, but no longer does the news because she holds a high post in the education ministry. The discussion covered every aspect of our training over the past six months as TVM has been transformed from a government mouthpiece to a credible news organization that makes every effort to be open to all sides. We also talked about the challenges of teaching teenagers to be network TV reporters. I should also mention that Gary led TVM to create a new talk show called "Siyasaath," or Politics, modeled after Meet the Press. The show premiered the week before we left with independent presidential candiate Hassan Saeed as the guest. The show also included an audience question regarding the canceled presidential debate. More than 2,000 people responded (an amazing number in a country with only 300,000 population, one third of them children) with SMS messages indicating they definitely want to see all the candidates on stage at the same time. So, in a weird way, the cancellation of the first debate may actually have stimulated voter interest in watching a debate when it is finally held.

Debate Disappointment

With all of the accomplishments of the Maldives Media Training Project, there was also a major disappointment. Plans to hold the nation's first-ever debate among multiparty presidential candidates were cancelled at the last minute. TVM had offered to host the event in its giant Studio 3. All six declared candidates were invited and told that those who did not attend would be represented by an empty chair. Four candidates accepted, but the major opposition candidate pulled out after hearing that President Gayoom had not responded. That left three candidates,and the major independent candidate was possibly on the verge of pulling out because he feared the other two participants would gang up on him, despite the fact that the format only allowed for candidates to address the audience but not each other.
The state-run radio station, Voice of Maldives, never agreed to carry the debate, and TVM never got around to setting up the studio. On the morning of the scheduled event, TVM CEO Ali Khalid pulled the plug, saying that only two or three candidates wouldn't make for a very interesting show. That same morning, President Gayoom's DRP party issued a press release saying that the president did not need to debate his rivals because he had served the nation for 30 years and everyone knows his policies by now. This was interpreted widely in the press as 1) arrogance by the DRP and 2) TVM caving in to pressure from the majority party. A link to an article from the opposition-leaning Minivan News service is below:
http://www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=4828
Update: As I write this from California a new candidate, Gasim Ibrahim of the Villa business empire, has thrown his hat in the ring. And there were tentative plans for a debate to be held on Aug. 28 or 29. TVM is planning to hold its own debate and a group of NGOs is also trying to sponsor a debate that will not involve TVM. Our team left TVM with a template for how to stage this type of event and we even briefed the host, whose name was kept secret but somehow leaked out anyway. I hope my friends in Maldives will continue to monitor the situation and post comments here.

Birthday Bash

Childrens' birthday parties in Maldives are definitely less boisterous than in the United States. There is always party music in English (like the Hokey Pokey or Three Blind Mice) blaring from a CD, but there is no dancing or party games. The kids have to wait until they get home to open their presents. Mostly everyone enjoys the food and it's an excuse for the adults to get together and talk. At the party for anchor Heena Waleed's darling five year old daughter, Noya, I got to meet her uncle who works in the planning ministry. I learned so much about potential story ideas on everything from tsunami relocation to a planned island for Hollywood film production. So I didn't mind that they didn't have a pinata.

Training Program Hosts

Imagine if you could round up some of Hollywood's hottest young rising stars and young athletes put them all in a class to learn how to host TV shows. That's what we are doing at the TV Maldives training program for program hosting. Unoosha, the singer from the Vote to Decide concert, is on the right. Below is Faisal, a talented actor who really should be headlining at the Improv. Others in the group range from a professional volleyball player to a customs and immigration official who is also a talented singer.

After some basic lectures on how to produce and host a program, we went into the studio for some mock interviews and show hosting exercises. This is a creative and talented bunch and I can't wait to see what kind of programs they will put on the air.

Public Service Announcement

TVM is also producing some very classy public service announcements for the voter education campaign. The creative effort is led by Gum, shown on the right. He's an awesome producer and has also organized the training for the new TVM program hosts.

Vote to Decide, Decide to Vote

You would think that a beach party with a free concert by some of the Maldives' hottest bands would attract a huge crowd. It would be nice to have had more people, but those who did turn out for the Vote to Decide, Decide to Vote event were treated to a good time, courtesy of Cathy Toledo's Think Nation group. They handed out buttons, t-shirts and wristbands reminding people of casting their vote in the upcoming presidential election.

I was impressed with the Think Nation theme song, with lyrics by 85-year-old poet Aminath Faiza and a rockin' bass line, and even rap in Dhivehi. But the real star is Mariyam Unoosha, one of the new programming hosts in training and one of Maldives' most popular singers.

Update: the concert had to be called off early when violence broke out nearby and someone was stabbed. Too bad, because voter education is badly needed here. An example: one lady took her Vote to Decide button and asked if she needed to bring it with her on election day. There is something weird about telling people to vote when you can't tell them WHEN the election will be, but with all the rumors about vote buying in this country, we can't say often enough that your right to cast a secret ballot can't be taken away from you.

Sports and Politics

Like the Olympics, President Gayoom also chose 8-8-08 as the lucky day for the launch of his campaign and he did it in Olympic style, complete with the "Bugler's Dream" theme that NBC uses for the Olympics. The background featured larger-than-life pictures of the president and his running mate. The campaign logo is an outstretched hand holding up five fingers. I thought it was "five more years" because that is the length of the president's term under the new constitution, but DRP members tell me it is actually the five principles of Islam.

The campaign launch also featured members of the Maldivian National Soccer Team. Gayoom's party implied that the appearance was a team endorsement of the president's candidacy. And that's a problem for FIFA, the international governing body of "football." Players are not supposed to get involved with religion or politics. The players are now under investigation.

Olympic Opening

TVM is showing the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics courtesy of a special feed provided by IOC to the state broadcasters of developing countries. Viewers here get a better deal than those in the United States, where the audience has to wait for NBC to edit the footage and show it in prime time hours later with commercial interruptions. In Maldives, they only interrupted the ceremony for Muslim prayer time! No commercials.
There are only four athletes competing from Maldives, which is a "non-qualifying" country. The swimmers have to practice in the resort pool a the airport hotel because last time, when they only practiced in the ocean, they weren't prepared to compete.

They aren't likely to contend for any medals, but there was a lot of pride when Maldives was among the first teams to enter the Bird's Nest, because of its position in the alphabetical order of Mandarin.